Dunnage or cargo air bags are used within the cargo shipment or transportation industry as a means for readily and easily securing or bracing cargo within the holds of different transportation facilities, such as, for example, railroad cars, ships, airplanes, truck trailers, and the like. Such dunnage or cargo air bags conventionally comprise an inflatable bladder which is enclosed within an outer bag or envelope which is conventionally fabricated from a plurality of paper plies or other materials. The dunnage or cargo air bags are conventionally of such construction and size as to readily enable the same to be inserted into voids or spaces defined between spaced cargo loads, or between a particular cargo load and a side or end wall of the cargo container or hold, whereupon inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bag, the dunnage or cargo air bag will expand so as to thereby fixedly engage the adjacent cargo loads, or the cargo load and the container wall, so as to secure the cargo loads against undesirable movement during transit obviously, in order to in fact achieve the inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bags to a predetermined pressurized level by permitting pressurized or compressed air to be conducted into the interior portion of the inflatable bladder, or alternatively, in order to in fact permit the pressurized air or compressed air, already disposed within the interior portion of the inflatable bladder, to be exhausted out from the interior portion of the inflatable bladder so as to permit deflation of the same, such dunnage or cargo air bags are conventionally provided with a suitable inflation valve assembly.
Various different embodiments or structures of dunnage or cargo air bags, and inflation valve assemblies, for use in connection with the inflatable bladders of such dunnage or cargo air bags, or for use in connection with similar packaging components, are disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,488 which issued to Elze et al. on Mar. 4, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,275 which issued to Howlett, Jr. et al. on Jun. 1, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,438 which issued to Goshorn et al. on Aug. 4, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,070 which issued to Angarola et al. on Mar. 27, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,069 which issued to Angarola et al. on Mar. 27, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,364 which issued to Leslie et al. on Jul. 25, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,526 which issued to Baxter et al. on Aug. 9, 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,026 which issued to Baxter on Feb. 25, 1975, as well as within U.S. patent application Publication 2003/0021649 which was published for Shetty on Jan. 30, 2003.
As can be readily appreciated from some of the fore-going patent publications, various inflation valve assemblies, which have apparently been adapted for use in conjunction with dunnage or cargo air bag assemblies for inflating and deflating the same, are generally disclosed within, for example, the aforenoted patents which issued to Baxter et al. and Baxter, while the details of other inflation valve assemblies, which have likewise been particularly adapted for use in conjunction with dunnage or cargo air bag assemblies, are disclosed within the aforenoted patents which issued to Leslie et al. and Angarola et al. More particularly, as disclosed, for example, within any one of the aforenoted patents which issued to Leslie et al. and Angarola et al., all of the valve assemblies have upstanding valve stem members which are normally disposed or biased toward a sealed arrangement with respect to a valve seat member. Furthermore, in order to, for example, inflate the dunnage or cargo air bag, a suitable compressed air gun, or similar implement, is adapted to be mated with, or seated upon, the valve stem housing such that, for example, a nozzle portion or member of the gun or implement can in fact mate with or be seated upon the valve stem housing. In this manner, the gun or implement can effectively force or cause the upstanding valve stem member to be moved away from its valve seat. It is noted, however, in connection with the detailed description of such valve structures, that while such valve structures have been characterized as comprising “flat valve” structures in that they effectively permit the dunnage or cargo air bags, when disposed in their deflated states or conditions, to lie substantially or generally flat, such valve structures per se, in view of the integral incorporation or disposition of the upstanding valve stem and housing components within the dunnage or cargo air bags, nevertheless do not comprise true flat valve structures in view of the fact that true flat valve structures normally do not have substantial or considerable height profiles or dimensions.
It is noted further, however, that true flat valve structures are in fact well-known within the fluid handling industry, and that various different embodiments or structures of true flat valves, for use within, or in connection with, inflatable structures or packages, are disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,691 which issued to Damask et al. on Jan. 27, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,532 which issued to Pharo on Dec. 31, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,163 which issued to Abe on May 3, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,468 which issued to Kapadia on Jul. 20, 1993. It is noted still further that the flat valve structures as disclosed, for example, within the Damask et al., Pharo, and Abe patents are relatively simplistic in that they all comprise, in effect, a pair of plastic sheets which are disposed atop each other and which are heat-sealed together along laterally separated, longitudinally extending heat-sealed side or edge regions. Accordingly, a single fluid or air channel, through which compressed or pressurized air can flow in connection with the inflation or deflation of the bag, container, or structure, is defined between the longitudinally extending heat-sealed regions. Furthermore, it is well-known, in accordance with conventional fluid flow or fluid handling techniques and principles, that in order to provide a particular fluid flow, which is flowing or being conducted through a particular conduit, channel, or duct, with sufficient pressure and velocity properties or parameters, the length and width or diametrical dimensions of the particular channel, duct, or conduit must be characterized, or related to each other, by means of a predetermined ratio. Accordingly, if it is desired, for example, to increase the width or diametrical dimension of the particular channel, duct, or conduit in order to, for example, increase the volume of fluid flow through the particular conduit, channel, or duct such that the inflation of the inflatable package, or dunnage or cargo air bag, can be achieved more rapidly or in a substantially shorter amount of time, then the length dimension of the particular channel, duct, or conduit must be correspondingly increased so as to maintain the aforenoted predetermined ratio defined between the length and width or diametrical dimensions characteristic of the particular fluid conduit, channel, or duct whereby the desired pressure and velocity properties or parameters of the fluid flow, which is being conducted or flowing through the particular channel, conduit, or duct, can in fact be maintained or preserved.
Still further, while in some instances, providing the particular fluid channel, duct, or conduit with the correspondingly increased length dimension would normally not present any critical or significant problems, when the flat valve structures, having such increased length dimensions, are utilized within inflatable dunnage or cargo air bags, the disposition or incorporation of such relatively longer flat valve structures within the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bags limits the inflation capacity of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag. In addition, it is to be particularly appreciated that in order to ensure the fact that the flat valve structures remain closed, after inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bags has been performed, such that the dunnage or cargo air bags will not undergo undesirable or inadvertent deflation so as not to adversely affect the securing or bracing of the cargo loads, the flat valve structures necessarily have a relatively extensive length dimension whereby the downstream end portions of the flat valve structures, that is, those distal end portions of such flat valve structures which are disposed internally within the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag, will have effectively become entangled or twisted with respect to themselves, or folded over upon themselves, such that the flat valve structures are effectively closed off or self-sealed.
This phenomenon, however, presents operational problems in that as a result of such entanglement, twisting, or folding over of the flat valve structures, the flat valve structures may prematurely prevent the effective inflation of the cargo or dunnage air bags, or alternatively, such undesirable structural features characteristic of the flat valve structures may render the complete inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bags difficult and time-consuming to achieve. Still yet further, when such flat valve structures are necessarily relatively extensive in length, the disposition or incorporation of such relatively long flat valve structures into an inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag also limits the region or space, defined within the inflatable dunnage or cargo bag, into which the flat valve structure can actually be incorporated. In other words, due to the relatively enlarged size of such flat valve structures, they cannot be readily disposed within a corner region of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag, but, to the contrary, must be disposed at a location which is somewhat remote from the corner region of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag. Accordingly, it has proven somewhat difficult or problematic to achieve the rapid and complete inflation of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag because operator personnel cannot readily support the corner region of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag while at the same time support or manipulate the air nozzle and flat valve assembly during the inflation of the inflatable dunnage or cargo air bag.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved multi-channel flat valve assembly for facilitating the inflation of an inflatable bladder disposed interiorly of, or comprising, the dunnage or cargo air bag for use in connection with the securing or bracing of cargo within the holds of different transportation facilities, such as, for example, railroad cars, airplanes, ships, truck trailers, and the like, wherein the width dimension of the multi-channel flat valve assembly can be enhanced or enlarged such that the inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bag can be rapidly accomplished, while the length dimension of the multi-channel flat valve assembly can be maintained relatively small so as not to adversely affect the size or filling capacity of the dunnage or cargo air bag, wherein the length dimension of the multi-channel flat valve assembly can be maintained relatively small such that the downstream or inner end portion of the multi-channel flat valve assembly does not become entangled, twisted, or folded over upon itself whereby the proper and complete filling of the dunnage or cargo air bag with pressurized or compressed air can in fact be achieved so as to subsequently secure or brace cargo loads in a desirably stabilized manner, and wherein further, the length dimension of the multi-channel flat valve assembly can be maintained relatively small such that the valve assembly can be optimally located within an upper corner region of the dunnage or cargo air bag so as to effectively prevent any distortion or folding over of the corner region of the dunnage or cargo air bag whereby, again, the proper and complete inflation of the dunnage or cargo air bag can be facilitated and ensured so as to, in turn, ensure the secure bracing of the cargo loads in a desirably stabilized manner.